Final Reflection on Edu 776

     I have learned so much this semester in Edu 776! Sometimes there are applications that I am interested in, or that I’ve signed up for, but I put off taking the plunge—iMovie, Aurasma, and Voice Thread come to mind! So I appreciate the opportunity to try new things.  I’ve also benefited from our discussions of a digital footprint as well as a professional presence on the web. My website and blog are a solid start!

     We are lucky to be in a district that values professional development, that conceived of a faculty cohort taking a tech class together. It’s also been great hearing teachers talk about a variety of tech tools. We need more teachers sharing about what technology they are having success with! It’s been a real pleasure working with some colleagues that I don't always get a chance to spend time with. It reminds me how important the social aspect of learning is. Our district can only benefit from the new and renewed connections between everyone. 

     There have been a plethora of resources presented during each class. I admire the fact that Nicole has tried out every tool she’s shared with  us on students. It’s been helpful seeing a veteran Tech Specialist’s collection of prezi’s, professional website with lists of links on topics such as coding or digital citizenship, and rubrics. I never would have thought to ask people if they wanted my newsletter, the way Nicole does with her teachers who then sign up to get them via Remind. Food for thought!

Remind is a messaging app perfect for schools.

(Image Source)

     In one fell swoop our cohort has gotten experience with blabberize, blogging, wordle, weebleys, wikis, prezi’s and webquests. We’ve been inspired by our fellow students’ iMovies and cool tool talks. We learned a host of transferrable skills and it's been so exciting to see D90 students doing variations of some of these. I look forward to a future D90 PD day when our cohort can share favorite ed tech learning with the rest of our community. 

Lessons in Data Mining

     In class the other night we went Data Mining for all the information we could find on a randomly assigned person. It was sobering to be able to find out information on a person’s job, home purchase, age, and even family pictures. Your mother’s maiden name used to be private and classified information—no more! There are countless websites, some of them for pay, which exist now to help people seek out personal information on others. 

     This exercise made me realize how critical it is for teachers to educate students on leaving a positive digital footprint. Students don't always understand that what they do online is often permanent. When they grow up and mature, those embarrassing pictures or comments are still available to be retrieved. I recently came across a Gaggle article on Twitter which emphasizes that nothing is private when it has been posted on the internet. Students need to learn that it is necessary to protect their reputation. We’ve all heard of the job applicant who gets edged out or even a teacher getting fired because of inappropriate Facebook pictures or comments brought to light.  


                             

                                            Gaggle tweet about Digital Citizenship

     Since it is so easy to extract information about people on the web, now more than ever it is time to take control of your web presence and ensure that you are communicating a positive image for yourself. Steve Dembo lectures passionately about the need for students to have evidence of their creative work available on the internet. He says that not having a digital footprint is worse than having a bad one! When there are only a few spots open for scholarships or admission to a prestigious school, you can bet that some admissions personnel will be googling student names in order to learn more about them. Besides, Dembo notes, wonderful work deserves to be shared with the world, not buried away. As educators we can model a positive, professional online presence for students and help them put their best digital foot forward!

                             Steve Dembo believes that teachers should help students cultivate their online presence. 

Digital Storytelling Reflection

     I am feeling proud of myself for creating my first iMovie! In the past I have relied on WeVideo for moving making, because I appreciated the flexibility of not being tied to a single device when uploading film. However, since we are in an all-Mac district, it makes sense to have a working knowledge of a fabulous tool like iMovie which is at our fingertips. 

     That evening as we watched each other’s movies in class, I was once again struck by the creativity and depth of my D90 colleagues. Its important to take the time to get to know our fellow teachers, but its easy to go about our business with blinders on, connecting primarily with the friends in our inner school circle. Time is always at a premium in schools, and when are we able to talk about pets being part of the family, or the impact our 4th grade teacher had on our life, or a story we’ve had in the back of our mind for a while? The experience reminded me of the pleasures of attending a conference with colleagues, sometimes the bonding and idea exchange that occurs with one another rivals the value of the content presented. 

     With this in mind, it would be illuminating to see the digital stories our students could tell us. What a great, beginning of the year community building activity! Or this could be a classroom job, videographer. And this person could take pictures and videos and turn them into a movie to show everyone a certain time of year, or assembly, or field trip. This would also be a good tool to use to create a film presentation about a region, a book, a period in time, or important issue. One thing we know for sure, students would definitely appreciate the chance to express themselves with digital storytelling. 

Show Data in a Fun Way with Piktochart

     Piktochart is a user-friendly site where you can make really sharp looking infographics in a snap. I created my first Pictochart on coding apps available to elementary students. This is a helpful visual learning tool since our eyes can process pictures more quickly and easier than text.

     You may choose a template or you can create your own. This site is free, but you have fewer templates to choose from with a free account. Any part of the template can be removed or changed. You can upload images from your computer, and there is even a link to import data from survey monkey. Some applications like Canva have a lot of images to choose from, unlike Piktochart, where you must create or supply your own. I also like that Piktochart has a drag and drop option for images. When you are finished, its easy to share via embed code or email. Privacy options are only available for paid accounts.

     This would be a good tool for teachers to use when students have to break down a concept to its basic terms. Students could make a poster advertising a concept. Or students could create an infographic based on research they have done, or they could create an infographic using a variety of data and then interpret that data. Debating two sides of an issue would work well with this tool, as well as creating timelines to show a period of history or the arc of a story. Especially since infographics are popular and prevalent, I believe students would be enthusiastic about using this tool to demonstrate something that they have learned and would like to communicate. When students are doing research on trends or issues or even if you are just doing a data unit in geometry, this is a handy tool to utilize with your classroom!

Take Posters to the Next Level with Glogster

Glogster is another Cool Tool for Teachers looking to spice up their own presentations or student reports. You can access Glogster online or with their free app. This is another example of a wonderful application which used to be free but no longer is. However, it is so utterly easy to use and the results look so polished and professional, that it may be well worth a little cash outlay to some teachers.

My sample glog (yes, that's what you call the interactive media posters produced on Glogster!) is about Digital Citizenship and staying safe online. I could show this example to students when I'm talking to them about internet safety. Or, I could show them my poster and then give them an internet safety topic to research create their own glog on. This is an easy way for a group to collaborate because each member could be working on his own subtopic and then share his writing or images, etc with the group and one person could quickly upload these to glogster. 

You can upload images or video and select a variety of text styles and graphics. The app uses something called "Webpicker" where you can slide videos and images from the internet to your glog. It would be ideal if a url source code could be automatically generated when you took something from the internet, they way it is in the Explain Everything app.  When you are finished its easy to share the final product, there are options to share on Facebook, Twitter, email, text, export as an image or generate a URL.  

Glogster makes it easy for students to create sharp looking and inviting posters on a variety of devices. This is also a great tool for students to show their parents, because it is easy to see business uses for this as well.

Hear Student Thinking with VoiceThread

     VoiceThread is a wonderful tool to have in your teacher toolbox. You pose a question, post a picture or video, and then students can comment on it by making an audio recording, or typing out their response or even making a video that allows them to draw on a copy of the image on the spot. 

     For my sample project I used the Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg, specifically one of the pages from this otherworldly book. Sometimes its challenging to begin writing without a warm up. As a possible pre-writing assignment to get them formulating some ideas, students talked about what they saw in the picture and what might happen next. See this VoiceThread project below. 

    This is a protected environment, people can only comment if they’ve been invited to do so. To sign up students can use school email, but if that is not an option an email will be generated by VoiceThread for log in purposes. You can use VoiceThread with Kindergarten students  all the way to adults, it is very user friendly and intuitive from the user’s end. Once set up, it truly is a breeze to use. This is one of those tools that helps even reticent students be heard. There is a free app or you can access it from a computer. VoiceThread used to be free, but it is no longer so. Rates are pretty reasonable though, for a classroom teacher, just $15 a month. 

     You will have access to a library of VoiceThreads, and there are some terrific examples of it being used across all disciplines. One of my favorite projects involved students making poems about depression era pictures the teacher had posted as a pre-cursor to studying that period. Students, already familiar with poems in two voices, wrote and performed a poem in two voices about each stark picture. Very powerful, check it out below!

     I can see teachers using this with a math problem, students could explain their method of solving it. You could use this before or after a field trip, post some pictures of what students will be seeing and have them comment on it, either what they think it is, or afterwards, what they learned about it. This could also make a good exit ticket.  Its a great way for students to hear each other’s thoughts, too. 

Twitter: How do I love thee, let me count the ways!

     I have always been enthusiastic about Twitter for professional use, ever since attending a "You Are Not Alone: How to Grow Your PLN" session by Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate. (For notes from that 2014 ICE conference, click here.) Twitter has been my go-to source when I am looking for like-minded educators, innovative schools, answers, resources, or just plain inspiration. My handle is @AClasky. 

     Until now, however, I had avoided the Twitter Chat, a format that seemed a bit chaotic. But happily, that is changing. The other night I participated in my first Twitter Chat, #atchat, about Assistive Technology.  It was helpful to enter the hashtag in the Twitter search field, and then click  the Live tab at the top. 

      [Image Source: screenshot by A. Clasky]
       
Search for a group's hashtag and then click 
Live during a Twitter Chat.

    

      The moderators were Karen Janowski, an Assistive and Educational Technology

 Consultant from the Boston area and Mike Marotta, an Assistive Technology Consultant and Trainer from New Jersey. Karen invited newcomers to introduce themselves. And then a lively, general session ensued which included a discussion of favorite apps and resources discovered this year, how relevant or not handwriting is today, challenges faced so far, and favorite articles and blogs. Questions were labeled Q1, Q2, etc, and answers followed suit, A1, A2. Karen reminded us to use the #atchat hashtag when responding. It's easy to forget to do that because the pace can feel pretty lively! 

     The tone was upbeat and friendly and it suddenly felt like I had a circle of dedicated and highly knowledgeable educators to turn to if I ever had an assistive tech question or issue.   One tweeter mentioned that Osmo now has a Numbers component--who knew?! It struck me that here is a group of teachers who are passionate about their field, and after teaching all day they are chatting about it online at night! Several times we were reminded that the group was looking for new moderators, that this is a job that rotates and is shared. Mike collected all of the #atchat tweets in Storify, and tweeted it out the next day. Next time I plan to explore a tool like TweetDeck to help me see tweets  more steadily throughout a chat rather than in bursts. I hope my future chats are as accessible, convivial and practical as #atchat!

      [Image Source: screenshot by A. Clasky]

It can be gratifying to widen your PLN
 and discover new resources during a Twitter Chat. 

What Stage of Technology are You in?

     It has been fascinating to learn about the Five Stages of Technology Integration! I had heard of a step here or a step there, but never all five in order:

• 1. Entry:  Technology is something to be feared or avoided. 
• 2. Adoption:  The teacher utilizes a few tools, usually productivity tools, but considers        technology as something  taught by someone else. 
• 3. Adaption:  Technology doesn’t replace anything, for examples student write their paper in class and then type it up in the lab. 
• 4. Appropriation:  The teacher uses tech all the time to excess, if it involves tech it must be better. 
• 5. Innovation: The teacher assesses what technology works with her curriculum. 

     How empowering to consider that we are on a learning continuum, and can advance as far as we want. It’s normal to feel mistrustful, or its normal to lean too heavily on something new or a wonderful guru, these are all phases of mastery. I'm wondering if the study this is based on is also responsible for the SAMR ladder?

     I probably go back and forth between Appropriation and Innovation. I aim for Innovation of course, but sometimes if something doesn't go as well as I had hoped, like using a back channel with 2nd grade for example, in my final analysis I may feel like I didn’t prepare students properly for a new experience. Or else I might have been too swayed by reports of how wonderful a new tool could be versus really getting a feel for a particular class, being in touch with them developmentally.  I sheepishly admit that yes, it is possible for tech specialists to be bedazzled by the tool at times, rather than focusing on the students and what they are learning.  As Barb Mayer, 2nd grade teacher, says with gusto, the tail should not be wagging the dog!  She is a great example of someone in the Innovation stage. She decided her class would participate in the Global Read Aloud on their terms. So they are blogging and have plans to connect with another class, but her learning objective right now, Author’s Purpose, is still being achieved.

                                                                                   (Image Source: Elizabeth Fitzgerald)

                                           2015 Global Read Aloud Books: Teachers strive to connect students
                                                     with the wider world.                   

     The Stage 4 teacher who only is focused on the technology in her own classroom, and who frequently has won grants to get things the other classes do not have, is also quite familiar.  My current district values team work to such a degree, if one teacher is doing something interesting with technology, she is thrilled when another colleague begins the same or similar undertaking. Very refreshing!

     When learning a new and initially challenging technology, I believe it is possible to slide back to the feelings that I used to have at the entry level stage—frustration. I wouldn’t say that I do not trust technology in general when frustrated by something new. But by knowing my learning style with technology, I am confident that continually playing and experimenting with a new app, etc. will most surely lead me to mastery sooner or later. 

     It’s fitting to mention during Connected Educators Month, that it is helpful and reassuring to be able to turn to your PLN when trying out something new with your class. You can find out what the stumbling blocks may be and get helpful tips and advice. You are not alone with Aurasma or Green Screen or the updated KidBlog or whatever you are trying out!

     Now if only I could apply this kind of positive thinking to other areas of my life—like exercising!

Hello, Again!

    After a long hiatus, I am rebooting my blog. So I would like to begin by introducing myself. My name is Annmarie Clasky, and I am a Technology Specialist at Lincoln Elementary in River Forest, Illinois.

A Little Bit About Me

     My life partner is the warm, witty, and wonderful David Clasky.

Annmarie & Dave are happy to be on vacation!

     

     We love to explore nature in every season, and do gentle camping, hiking, and biking throughout the Midwest. When we can't get out of town we escape to our balcony, which overlooks a wild forest. Sometimes we half expect to see Hansel and Gretel stumbling out! Instead we see deer, coyotes, raccoons, and a myriad of birds and water fowl. Our binoculars are aways close at hand, and the Des Plaines River runs nearby.

                                                                A view from the balcony. 


    We share our home with two adorable felines, Toby and Twix.

What's for dinner? 

     After studying social work and classical studies at Loyola University, I began my professional path at The Latin School of Chicago, where I was the Middle School Assistant and a 6th and 8th grade Homeroom Teacher for over a decade.  It was with a heavy heart that I left my Latin comrades, but a seemingly random conversation with a colleague about the Academy of Urban School Leadership led me to the next exciting and challenging phase of my journey with AUSL, and I entered an M.A.T. program at National Louis University. I was a resident in a 6th grade classroom at Dodge Academy on the west side of Chicago, and from there began teaching 4th and later 5th grade at Princeton A.C., also on the west side. When that school closed down due to under enrollment, I moved to Cameron in Humboldt Park, where I became the technology teacher for K-8. After four years in the lab, a friend working in District 90 in River Forest reached out to me, and thus began the next wonderful phase of my career as a K-4 tech coach. I am so fortunate to be working with dedicated, hard working and fun teachers!

                                                           D90 Specialists paying homage to our new solar panels.